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China’s Xi Jinping calls for innovation system overhaul to beat global tech rivals

President Xi Jinping has called for stronger efforts to draw overseas talent and address flaws in China’s innovation ecosystem, as intensifying tech rivalry pushes Beijing…

By Samantha Johnson / July 8, 2026
President Xi Jinping has called for stronger efforts to draw overseas talent and address flaws in China’s innovation ecosystem, as intensifying tech rivalry pushes Beijing to bolster its global competitiveness.

Xi underscored these priorities on Wednesday as he presented China’s highest scientific honour – the State Pre-eminent Science and Technology Award – to solid-state lithium battery pioneer Chen Liquan and military airborne radar expert Ben De.

Each 2025 laureate received 5 million yuan (about US$736,000) in prize money at the national science assembly held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The 2026-2030 plan period was a critical phase for building a tech powerhouse, Xi noted, stressing the need for breakthrough innovation to drive Chinese modernisation.

However, this required overcoming entrenched structural hurdles, he said, admitting that China’s tech sector still suffered from “insufficient original innovation capability in certain fields, an irrational talent structure, and low efficiency in tech investment”, alongside institutional bottlenecks that clogged progress.

Xi linked the domestic push to the shifting global power dynamics. With global competition intensifying, “technological strength and innovation capability have increasingly become a nation’s core competitiveness”, he said.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) – driven by data, computing power and algorithms, and rooted in cross-disciplinary breakthroughs like neuroscience and mathematics – presented a “pressing” situation, he cautioned, calling on China to “seize historical opportunities to accelerate high-level self-reliance”.

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